I Will Wait For You
by DeliriousMess
Summary: So forever ago I had an idea for an AU where Duke and Jennifer were childhood sweethearts and then Things Happen and they don't see each other for like ten years and then get back together. Like a lot of my AUs on here right now, it's very scattered, incomplete, and incoherent, but maybe someday I'll be able to sit down and get all my ideas written out into a fairly decent story.
1. Chapter 1

Jennifer Mason was a headstrong little six year old. No one made or told Jennifer to do anything that she didn't want to do. You could ask just about anyone in Haven about "that Mason girl" and damn near every single one of the citizens would tell you the same thing.

"Too stubborn for her own good."

Her mother, when asked, or more accurately, when _told_ that her daughter was too stubborn for her own good, would only smile and say, "Oh I know. She's coming along quite nicely, if I do say so myself."

She was also quite independent. More often than not, she could be found at the park in downtown Haven, sitting in the gazebo there and reading something that was often well above her age level. But, again, no one told Jennifer Mason what she couldn't do.

Plenty of people would mumble and grumble about how a girl her age shouldn't be walking around alone, but few people did anything about it. Besides, enough people cared about "that Mason girl" that she was never truly left unsupervised. And when her Great Uncles were the Teague brothers, there wasn't much she could do that they weren't aware of.

One day, while she was sitting and reading like she usually did, a boy approached her. He was a few years older than her, but not by much, he was scrawny with skinned knees and missing teeth. She knew him, distantly, as the Crocker boy. She had been told, by numerous Havenites who thought themselves to be her substitute parents because of the hands off approach that her mother seemed to have about raising her, to avoid the Crocker boy if at all possible. She had not once been told this by her mother, and it was only her mother's advice she ever heeded—that is, if she ever _chose_ to heed such advice.

He stood there, watching her, his hair too long and obscuring his eyes slightly, and not saying anything. Jennifer continued to read her book, not trying to ignore the boy, but not quite sure what to say to him either.

Finally, he was the one to break their silence, "Why're you always readin'?"

Jennifer looked at him and shrugged, "I dunno. And I ain't _always_ readin'. I do all sorts'a stuff."

He shook his head and flashed her a gapped tooth smile, "No ya don't! When _I_ see ya, you're always readin'."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "But do ya _always_ see me?"

He considered this for a moment, studying her, "No."

She smiled at him, very self-satisfied, and marked her page. She closed the book and stood, "So how do you _know_ that I don't do all sorts'a stuff?"

The Crocker boy glared at her. She just kept smiling at him and held her hand out to him as she clutched the book to her chest, "I'm Jennifer Mason."

He looked at her hand and then back to her, "I know who you are. Don't you know who _I_ am? What're ya doin'?"

"My momma says it's always good to introduce yourself to people you talked to." She stated matter-of-factly, still holding her hand out to him, "So hi. I'm Jennifer Mason."

He looked from her hand to her again before taking it and shaking it once, "Duke Crocker."

She beamed at him and and pumped his arm solidly. She let his hand go and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "It's nice to meet ya Duke. I have to go home now. Got stuff to do other than readin'."

Before she was completely out of ear shot, Duke yelled after her, "I'll believe it when I see it!"

She stopped, turned, and yelled back, "Then you better start payin' attention, Duke Crocker!"


	2. Chapter 2

Prompt: Dukifer + Sweethearts!AU (ish?) + Helped you pick out clothes to wear on a date with someone else

Duke didn't completely understand why Jennifer thought he was the best person to ask about what to wear for her date.

But he really, _really_ wishes she hadn't.

"What about this one?" she asked, stepping out from one of the screens that divided her room. It was black dress with an asymmetrical skirt and a halter top that had a white lace overlay to it. It showed an exceptional amount of skin. There was also a thin black belt that pulled the middle of the dress tight around her waist and accentuated her figure.

It was beautiful.

And Duke hated the idea of someone else seeing her in it.

Duke shook his head as he went back to pretending to read a magazine he'd grabbed from Jennifer's bookshelf, reclining onto her bed, "No. You look like you're going to a nightclub. Or a funeral where you're the deadman's mistress and you're trying to _really_ show up the widow."

Jennifer laughed at his last comment before she sighed. She let her head fall back and groaned as she stepped back behind the screen, "Ugh, Duke this is the _third_ dress you haven't liked! _Something_ has to work!"

Duke just shrugged, "I just don't understand why you care so much about what this kid—what's his name?—Mitch? thinks?"

"It's _Michael_ and I care because I happen to _like_ him." Came the indignant reply from the other side of the screen.

Duke sighed through his nose and clenched his jaw at that. _Don't remind me_ , he thought, tossing the magazine to the side and sitting up.

He hadn't wanted to admit it, but he didn't like this Michael kid from her literature class who "was smart and insightful and funny" and a goddamn _laundry_ list of other adjectives that had Jennifer sighing like she was in one of those goddamn Rom-Coms she's made him watch. Jennifer was easily the smartest girl he knew and this Michael guy had her—well she was just _different_ , is all. And Duke didn't like that this guy could change her so much.

"Yes, you've mentioned that." Duke called back to her, trying and failing to keep an edge from his tone.

Her head came around the edge of the screen so she could glare at him, "But _you_ don't."

Duke just shrugged at that, "I have no opinion about a kid who's name I can't even get right."

She eyed him for a moment before disappearing back behind the screen. "If I didn't know you as well as I do, Duke, I'd think you'd _purposely_ messed up his name."

"Now why would I do that?" Duke replied mockingly.

Jennifer stepped out from behind the screen again, wearing an ivory cardigan over a teal dress that had a draped neckline and a knit overlay. It had elastic in the waist to pull it close and she'd wrapped a light brown leather braided belt over it. It was much more casual than the previous dress but she still looked too pretty for his liking for some reason.

She leaned carefully on the screen as she regarded him, before a shadow of recognition came across her face as well as a playful, though disbelieving, smile, "It…oh god, Duke are you _jealous_?"

Duke crossed his arms over his chest, scoffing, "What? I wouldn't—why would I be jealous?"

Jennifer shrugged, still smiling, "I can't imagine."

She walked over to him, "I mean, after all, if you liked me as _more_ than you're best friend, surely you would've _told_ me by now, right?"

She was standing in front of him now, and he pulled his arms closer towards him, still not saying anything.

She leaned towards him, placing her hands on his shoulders carefully, "And if you _had_ told me, I would've—hypothetically—turned down Michael's proposition for a date."

Duke gave her a surprised, though confused look, "You would've?"

She nodded, as her smile turned sly and she moved her hands to hold his face, "I would've."

She leaned down, making like she was going to kiss him—he'd even closed his eyes—but just before her lips met his, she turned his head to his left and whispered in his ear, "But you _didn't._ "

She released his face and grabbed her bag from the bed next to him, "Thanks for the help, Duke. I'll call you once the date's done."

With that, she left Duke to sort out what had just happened.


	3. Chapter 3

Prompt: Piercings

Duke hadn't seen her in a week. Not so much by choice, but more so for the fact that they just kept missing each other. He was starting to think that maybe she was avoiding him. He didn't have any real reason to think this, after all, he'd had his own shit to deal with too, but he couldn't help feeling like she'd been particularly avoidant of him.

So when she actively seemed to be seeking him out at the end of the week by the park, part of him wanted to make her work to get his attention. But when she caught his eye and smiled at him, he couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face. Whatever the reason for not seeing her all week, it didn't matter, now because here she was, smiling at him and all but bouncing into his arms.

He caught her as she sprung up to wrap her arms around his neck to hug him and then pull him down to kiss her. It was only when her tongue flicked out against his that he knew something was…different.

He pulled back from the kiss in surprise, earning a delighted giggle from Jennifer as she stood back a bit from him, "What was–?"

"D'you like it?" She asked before he could get his own question out, her excitement all but bubbling out of her.

"What was it?" He asked back, absently running a hand over his mouth in an attempt to figure out what it was he'd felt.

Her grin widened and she stuck her tongue out for him to see. Nestled in the middle of her tongue was a little ball of metal.

Duke looked from her tongue to her eyes in confusion, "Is that a–?"

"Tongue piercing?" She finished for him, still grinning, "Yeah! I got it last week and today's the first day that I've been able to talk and stuff without sounding like my tongue's too big for my mouth and I'd wanted to tell you after it happened but I also really wanted to surprise you so–surprise!"

"You did that for me?" He asked skeptically.

She shook her head, "No, I did it for me."

There was a new, mischievous glint in her eyes as she brushed up against him, "But I've been thinking that–once it's all healed up–I could show you why you'll appreciate it too."

"Oh?" He asked, still skeptical as she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck again, "What did you have in mind?"

She beamed up at him before kissing him again, gently but thoroughly so he would get the full effect of the piercing.

When she pulled away, they were both breathless but he smiled at her; "How long until it's fully healed?"


End file.
